What Is Israel’s ‘Red Line’?

Why, in his speech to the UN General Assembly late last month, did Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu push back the crunch time for Iran’s nuclear program to next spring or summer? The extended deadline came as a surprise considering that Netanyahu and his defense minister Ehud Barak had been saying for almost a year that time was running out fast, and implying that 2012 was the year of decision.

Since Netanyahu’s speech it has been variously claimed that he pushed back the deadline because of successful sabotage of Iran’s Fordo enrichment plant; because of too much opposition to a strike in the Israeli cabinet and top brass; or because Netanyahu expected Barack Obama to win on November 6 and saw improving relations with him as Israel’s cardinal strategic interest at the moment.

On Tuesday Amos Harel, defense analyst of Haaretz, offered still another take on the matter. Iran, he said, has been diverting enough of its enriched uranium for scientific purposes—specifically, making fuel rods for producing medical isotopes—that it won’t have enough bomb-grade uranium for another eight months.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s report in August had already said Iran was diverting enriched uranium for that other purpose. Now, says Harel, “defense sources” have further information to confirm that.

If so, why would Iran be slowing down its bomb program? Harel says it’s “an attempt to reduce international pressure”—thereby allowing Netanyahu and Israel to breathe a tad easier for now.

Typically, though, another report appearing on the same day puts Iran much closer to the finish line—though with a catch. Washington’s Institute for Science and International Security now says Iran could have enough material for a bomb in two to four months—definitely sooner than Netanyahu’s spring deadline.

And if the centrifuges at Fordo—now idle—start operating again, Iran could even, says the ISIS, have enough enriched uranium in three or four weeks.

On the other hand, the ISIS believes that, in any case, it would take Iran much longer to come up with a warhead: Iran would need “many additional months to manufacture a nuclear device suitable for underground testing and even longer to make a reliable warhead for a ballistic missile.”

In still another piece appearing on Tuesday, nuclear-weapons expert Prof. Graham Allison of Harvard takes a similar line. While Netanyahu’s timeline of next spring is “essentially correct,” Allison claims Iran would then have to launch a crash program to build the other components of a weapon. That, in turn, would entail ejecting the IAEA inspectors and giving the U.S. and Israel plenty of time—a few months—to act.

A scenario that, in Allison’s view, would make no sense for Iran; instead it would “wait until it has amassed enough material for a half-dozen bombs—allowing it to test one and credibly claim to have a nuclear deterrent against attack.” For that, says Allison, Iran would need at least two years.

In claiming, then, in his UN speech that the West’s red line should be enough Iranian enriched uranium for a single bomb, was Netanyahu being unduly alarmist?

The answer may lie in an interview that appeared in Foreign Policy’s The Cable on Friday with Netanyahu envoy Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S.

Shoval reaffirmed to interviewer Josh Rogin: “Israel doesn’t set dates, but if by a certain point the sanctions have not achieved the desired results, then other measures will have to be very practically considered…. We talk in terms of 6 to 8 months.”

He added: “Israel doesn’t pretend that it can totally eliminate Iran’s nuclear program…. But the general view in Israel is that we could stop the Iranian effort for 3 to 5 years. Well, in the Middle East 3 to 5 years is not such a short time, as we have seen. And the Americans could get into the game if they want to, within that delay.”

Most revealingly, Rogin reports that Shoval said Israel’s red line “is when the Iranians have produced enough fissionable material from which they can produce at least a dirty bomb within a short time….”

Setting off a dirty bomb in a city, of course, would not require the additional components mentioned by the ISIS and by Allison. For large countries, that threat may seem tolerable. For Israel—where a single dirty bomb could cause widespread panic in Tel Aviv and make much of it uninhabitable for years—it would not be.

Netanyahu’s announcement Tuesday night that Israel, too, is going to elections—which he’s expected to win handily—can put him in a stronger position, with a stronger coalition, to act against Iran later in 2013 if it proves necessary. And, it should be added—since much remains speculative—if it hasn’t been done already.

P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Beersheva and author of the book Choosing Life in Israel.

objectivefactsmatter

Israel doesn't have enough political clout to have the last public word on red lines for Iran. If there is an internal red line, we'll know some hours after they respond to it's breach.

http://www.facebook.com/dana.harbaugh.94 Dana Harbaugh

Great article… wish the networks would bring similar in-depth analysis more often… but they're more interested in figuring out if Lady Gaga's latest performance was the standard vomit she burps up or a new form.

Moisihe Pupick

W., 10/10/12 common era

The current State of Israel, so I have learned, consists of only about 10% of The Promised Land, i.e. "from the Nile to the Euphrates." That fact should provide the G-d haters and Jew haters something to fret about.

Schlomotion

Mr. Netanyahu has been pushing his red line on Iran around for decades. What's the big surprise that he is pushing it one more year?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLNn2YflwNs Roger

Schlo, stuxnet helped, but Iran is still determined to 'erase' Israel.

Bert

Every other nuclear power has taken far less time than Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has also had advantages and external support that other powers lacked. And yet no one seems to notice this odd situation.
Perhaps Iran has already developed nuclear weapons in secret elsewhere as Saddam Hussein was attempting secretly in Libya. The Iranians are not dumb and they may be waiting until they have a formidable number of nukes before surprising the world. They are also close with North Korea. Perhaps Iran is building their arsenal in North Korea which is also announcing that their missiles can now reach the U.S. The longer we wait the greater the risk of a really bad surprise.

Mr. Polly

Enough of these paranoid fantasies that Iran is trying to build a bomb!

Kufar Dawg

Yeah Farid Al Taqiyya the "paranoid fantasies" have about as much validity as the Jew hatred found in your holey islamic books of hatred don't they?

Ghostwriter

Why don't you use your brain for once,Mr. Polly instead of writing such inane drivel.

Mr. Polly

You have EVIDENCE that Iran is trying to make a bomb? Evidence denied to all intelligence agencies, American and Israeli alike?

Thomas Wells

Iran can build a atomic bombs from Plutonium also. It's nuclear reactors can produce Plutonium. The first American Uranium bomb designed at Los Alamos during WW II, was not even tested before using it in combat because the mechanism was so simple that there was no need to test it.

mlcblog

This is one of the few places I can get news about Bibi that I trust.

redwood509

The line is largely imaginary and means little.
It is good for regional posturing and domestic politics…
Israel is limited in what it can accomplish, this is a fact
which could only be negated if Israel can surprise the world
with some super dooper new age contraption from
a star wars generation, that could cause all reactors
to self implode or self implode…on that order…
I am not sure that either Israel nor the U.S have what it takes
nor the courage to deal with the economic and humanitarian outcomes…

fanlad

Netanyahu does not want to sway the presidential election to Obama's favor, by raiding Iran prior to 7 November. In addition, if he has the good fortune of Romney/Ryan being elected, he knows he has a friend and ally that will back him and Israel 100%. God speed Israel, Netanyahu, and Romney/Ryan.